Chicago Bears training camp report: DeMarcus Walker looks to build off last season’s late success

LAKE FOREST – Bears defensive end DeMarcus Walker feels much more comfortable heading into his second season with the team after overcoming different obstacles last year.

This summer is the first time in four years that Walker hasn’t joined a new team and is learning a new system. He’s also fully healthy after missing portions of last season’s training camp that left him feeling 75% healthy for most of last season.

Walker and the Bears hope that stability leads to a continuation of last year’s late-season success.

“It was definitely something that I had to take the punches and roll with it,” Walker told reporters Monday at Halas Hall after the team’s third training camp practice. “To understand you have to continue to take it one at a time, continue to work, continue to get better.”

Walker, like much of the Bears’ defense, built momentum toward the end of the season. The 29-year-old edge rusher finished with two sacks in the last four games of the year, seven quarterback hits, 10 total tackles and four tackles for loss. He played in 72.5% of the defense’s snaps during those games.

To build upon that success, Walker said he attended a pass rush summit in Las Vegas during the offseason. There he learned some techniques from some of the NFL’s top edge rushers such as the New Orleans Saints’ Cam Jordan and Raiders’ Maxx Crosby and is bringing those back to the Bears this summer.

“It’s just continuing to be effective,” Walker said. “You can be a dangerous man going either outside and inside, so having that mindset can help not only me but the team as well.”

Walker’s versatility was one of the top reasons why the Bears signed him last offseason. For the first time this training camp, he played from the inside during a two-minute drill Monday.

Bears coach Matt Eberflus is excited to use that versatility to the Bears’ advantage.

“He’s an effective guy in there,” Eberflus said. “He can go in and out. When you have that versatility, you can match him up on different people. Some guys can’t do that.”

Whether it will be Walker opposite of Montez Sweat on the edge of the defensive line is yet to be seen. Bears general manager Ryan Poles said he likes the Bears’ internal candidates on the line, but he’s always looking to see who’s available to sign.

Regardless of what the Bears do, Walker is focused on putting himself in the best position to be a difference-maker this season.

“I know who I am as a person,” Walker said. “My dad has a saying: ‘If you listen to what other people say, you’re not working.’”

Caleb Williams’ mixed results

The Bears saw the expected growing pains from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and the offense Monday. During one of Monday’s first 11-on-11 periods, the defense shut down Williams and forced him to make numerous incompletions and scramble from pressure.

Williams responded toward the end of practice. He led the offense down the field during a two-minute drill with long completions to Rome Odunze, Keenan Allen and a key fourth-down completion to D.J. Moore. Kicker Cairo Santos made a long field goal on first down to put points on the board.

Eberflus said he sent out Santos for the field goal so the Bears stayed under the set time they wanted the players to practice.

Monday’s practice was a good example of the progression he expects from Williams this season, Eberflus said. There are going to be ups and downs instead of a continued trajectory up.

“That’s by design and just happenstance, that’s going to happen,” Eberflus said. “We’re going to give some looks that are going to be hard for him, then he’s going to learn from those and grow and go to the next step. That’s him learning the game up here, learning the speed, learning how the windows close faster. When he does that, he’s going to keep growing and learning. That’s not just during training camp, that’s going to be the first game all the way to the last game. He’s got to keep stacking them up and keep learning.”

Taking attendance

Tight end Gerald Everett participated in his first practice of training camp after coming off the active/non-football injury list Sunday. He did some light work to ease into training camp.

Wide receiver Nsimba Webster and linebacker Noah Sewell didn’t practice for a second straight day. Eberflus said both were day-to-day and dealing with minor injuries.

“We’ll see how it goes and do what we always do,” Eberflus said.

Left tackle Braxton Jones and linebacker TJ Edwards completed more work than they had in the previous two practices, and rookie offensive tackle Kiran Amegadjie continued to sit out of practice for the third straight day.